48 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



depend, in this respect, upon natives, the more 

 agreeably and securely will they travel. 



The whole village of Ypanema ovv^es its origin 

 to the vast repositories of magnetic iron-stone in 

 tlie mountain of Araasojava, the treasures of which 

 have indeed been long known, but were not regu- 

 larly worked according to the true principles of 

 mining till after the arrival of the king. The en- 

 terprising minister, Conde de Linhares, brought 

 hither, in the year 1810, a company of Swedish 

 miners, who began by erecting a wooden workshop 

 on the banks of the Ypanema, in which they had 

 two small furnaces. At present there are still three 



^ Swedish master-workmen, who have increased the 

 annual produce of the manufactory built by them 

 to four thousand arrobas. In the smelting and 

 other operations the Swedish method is follow^ed. 

 The want of a high furnace, as well as the difficulty 

 of transporting the metal in large masses, and the 

 demand for ready-made articles, induced the 

 managers to have the greater part of the metal that 

 is obtained immediately manufactured into horse- 



. shoes, nails, locks, &c. The Swedish workmen 

 have endeavoured to instruct negi oes and mulattoes 

 so as to qualify them to be useful assistants, and 

 are very well satisfied with their practical ability ; 

 but their idleness and irregularity are a continual 

 cause of dissatisfaction to those good people who, 

 even in the abundance and freedom from care which 



